The people of Kumanovo say: “leisure talk” or “talk around the village tap (in English: the village well)”. That’s roughly what Mickoski’s interview on a national television looked like. With due respect to the host of the show, the answers to his questions were just like “conversations around the tap”. Exactly at the level of Mickoski’s political education.

Anyway, after early elections were announced countless times, the regular parliamentary elections will happen in about six months. I once said, more than a year ago, that Kovaceski, as the most incompetent prime minister in the history of Macedonia, will not fall because he will be tied to a tree and will remain motionless until the end of this mandate. That’s what happened. But what worries me is the possibility that he will remain at the head of the Macedonian government even after the elections. That is, he will remain tied to the tree and stand where he is. Mickoski convinced me that this terrible possibility could become a reality during his conversations at the village tap. After all, Mickoski could not give an exact answer as to whether he sees himself as a future prime minister. That non-response is not due to his forgetfulness, but precisely to his awareness that he WILL NOT BE PRIME MINISTER. It’s obvious that he’s been told he won’t be. However, due to the prolonged deception of the clientelist followers in our party and the deluded membership, he talks about chasing the number to a majority of 61 MPs. This is difficult – impossible to do in these political constellations, both internally and even more so in an international aspect. But there should be an excuse after the elections, and that is the first of many excuses. After all, he never said he would be prime minister, did he? The moment of “if” VMRO-DPMNE wins the elections is especially interesting and symptomatic. He wants to us to believe that the victory of our party VMRO-DPMNE over this useless and already “beaten with a hunting rifle” SDS is somehow in doubt.

The second excuse is the impossibility of reaching 61 MPs. When this happens the excuse/ justification will be very simple: It is the people who are to blame for not trusting Mickoski with 61 MPs and now he cannot form a government. Calling and making a parallel with the 2020 elections and the issue of the pandemic is also very symptomatic. I must say that as early as 2019 in October, I mentioned to Mickoski that there will be elections and that we (VMRO-DPMNE) should insist on quick elections, no later than mid-January 2020. But Mickoski decided on April, and then in cooperation with Zaev. The agony continued until July.

The third excuse we can expect would be the lack of a technical government. Why do I think this is an excuse, even though we, as an intra-party faction, were thinking the exact the same thing?  I even think we wrote about it in one of the columns. That Mickoski accepts our ideas and thoughts is a validation for the faction and that is clearly ahead of its time in political thought. Unfortunately, Mickoski needs time, one or two semesters, to understand what we are talking about (he reminds me of Pavle-paper funnel) in his slow political thought process). It is satisfying for us that our – factional views expressed through columns and announcements on our FB page are obviously being regularly read and that in practice shows that we are right no matter how much Mickoski and his leadership don’t want to publicly admit it. However, when we hear our own terms in their speeches and their belated acceptance of our publicly shared ideas, we are full of hope for VMRO-DPMNE and that the democratization of the party will have to happen very soon. When this happens, it will lead to the unification of all intra-party split structures. Although Mickoski sees the form, he does not really understand the subtlety of this political position that he himself publicly expressed in connection with the technical government. Why do we think that this request for the absence of a technical (Pržin) government has nothing to do with a stable and well-formed political goal and clear political thought on the part of Mickoski? Here comes the third level of excuses to be introduced: the elections were stolen! There was no control over the process as well as the elections, etc., etc., Which is why not only were the 61 MPs not achieved, but also the coalition capacity of the party decreased. A second aspect of interest for Mickoski to not have a technical government is that he does not have to make excuses about who he will propose as minister of interior and social policy, as well as additional deputy ministers. This is primarily due to the fact that at that stage he will not be able to avoid them as a “factor” that must be played by the people from the UDB. This structure in the party, from whom he will have to quickly dispose of after the elections, regardless of whether he has to be prime minister as he promised. Thus, he will “elegantly” avoid inconveniences both in front of promises and in front of intra-party UDB-a structures.

The populist narrative is to be expected. The slogan for such a narrative was given to Mickoski by his only coalition partner, Kasami. In order to successfully use this slogan in front of the members of the party and the Macedonian people to keep them in political blindness and delusion, he also used national television that invited Kasami to visit them and give a little nationalist fuel to Mickoski. Any vagueness regarding the coalition with the Left is just an obvious lie. On the other hand, talking about values ​​is just a bedtime story. Does anyone think that the Left will abandon its “values” and distinctly pro-Russian, anti-NATO and anti-EU attitudes? It can be done, if Moscow (read through the Udba structures from Belgrade) has an interest in such a thing and they are allowed to do it. That’s probably Mickoski’s fourth excuse.

After all, it was clearly stated between the lines that the EU is not Mickoski’s option, and therefore the hidden possible-probably-valuable coalition with the Left is a clear message. The old saying, “never say never” does not apply to a coalition with DUI. Nikoloski already expressed a public opinion there, and he, as the Grand Vizier from Not Gut, is the bone in Mickoski’s throat. In truth, for our entire party. But Mickoski will never be able to amortize and solve it on his own, as he promised. He doesn’t know how and from whom to ask and get help, and more or less, he really doesn’t want it. Vanity. Maybe he will find out, or he will lead us into yet another defeat and political debacle as a party.

It is the message regarding the EU that worries me. It worries me a lot. The context of relations with the EU is also the agreement with the EU called “French”. I have to mention again that Macedonia’s partner is the Bulgarian government, and not some individual from Bulgaria who, on assignment, will pour poison on Macedonia or the Macedonian people, regardless of his position in Bulgaria or in the European Parliament. It appears that we will keep going back looking for justification and going around in circles.  The abandonment of the agreement with Bulgaria will be secretly announced, or perhaps not, since it has a useful value only in front of the people, playing on feelings of belated national romanticism and chauvinism. At the same time, it is not clear whether it is about abandoning the “French proposal” or about abandoning the agreement with Bulgaria on good neighborliness? However, many inconsistencies exist for conducting a logical, stable and clear policy, which, above all else, expresses the radiation of instability in regional frameworks, especially in relation to the southern wing of NATO. That’s why I told her at the beginning that it was an informal “leisure talk”.

Just when we were about to hear about what was agreed with Zaev within the ZMM coalition, we were simply told, “we would not comment”. The phrase that excused this most essential question from being answered or hidden from the Macedonian public was supposedly used for “calming down the society”.

Christian, your party is not calm. With whom from our party do you normally talk with or accept suggestions from for political direction and democratization of the party? Of course, here I am not referring to the clientelists in your environment who nod at you and approve of your inarticulate practical policies and your even more vague political statements. He also quarreled with Gruevski, who remained silent for a long time, thus leaving the impression in the party, but also in front of the domestic and international public, that he tacitly supports you.

How do you think we should have 61 MPs like VMRO-DPMNE when there are pronounced contradictions and conflicts in the party that can be reflected at least by the abstinence of our members, and in extreme situations by parallel lists or the takeover of our electorate by other parties and coalitions? In practice, you do nothing to transfer and realize the divine tendency to calm social tensions first and necessarily in intra-party relations. First of all, that requires personal democratic capacity and virtue, just six months before the elections. You would have to admit that you have pursued the wrong policy, which has disabled the party for normal functioning and, above all, a victory over this incompetent SDS. Of course, this narrative in the context of the “pacification of society” is not yours either. He also borrowed it in the shape of a form. However, he did not understand the essence of what is needed to be done in order to make that appeasement a reality, and that reality led by VMRO-DPMNE. A very famous Macedonian journalist told you this a long time ago, I think more than two semesters ago, and he brought it up on the public stage. It really took you two semesters to understand who and what kind of messages were being sent to you. At the same time, not to be poisoned with vanity and false grandeur from your clientelistic environment. It is especially important to understand that there are people, members of VMRO-DPMNE, who love their party much more than you should love it as its nominal president. In this context, I must mention that, driven into a tight spot by your inarticulate political moves in recent years within the ZMM coalition, regarding this attempt of yours for a new calming (conciliatory) approach in politics, you were forced to accept the advice of outside advisors. I thank them for that, in the hope that it will lead to the democratization of VMRO-DPMNE.

Now, the fact that you are paying journalists to have “conversations about the tap” in order to humiliate those who opposed you politically for the sake of the party, and they are justifying you, has nothing to do with the real situation. It has nothing to do with your political talk that you are a nice guy. You have to prove that you are “nice” and this “nice” must be understood in the political sense. However, in practice, in order to do that you would have to practically change the internal party politics and the policy towards key state issues, especially the membership of Macedonia in the EU.

In order to be seriously understood both in the party and in Macedonia, and especially in front of our partners from the EU and the USA, as an intelligent, spiritual and democratic president of VMRO-DPMNE, you must take open, clear and unambiguous, honest and democratic steps in VMRO-DPMNE. It is inevitable that you must clearly and unequivocally put your personal position and the political position of VMRO-DPMNE on the issue of constitutional amendments and Macedonia’s pro-European path. Then you would have to act practically in those directions to prove that it is not just political talk. Of course, it should not be a “bedtime story”, but an immediately concrete visible, clear and recognizable step with visible – instant results.

Without this approach, in which you are already late and wasting our party’s time, we will not have a chance to get even close to 50, let alone 61 MPs and a government. You don’t need political talk on a public stage for the sake of preparing excuses. There are many honest political approaches. I told you last time that they are right under your nose if you want to see them. Otherwise, everything will remain “leisure talk”, with the aim of buying time that is not on our (VMRO-DPMNE) side and we don’t have it to waste.

 

Oliver Andonov